The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) CEO, Sammy Gyamfi’s green light to illegal miners to proceed to the land and mine even without licence could not have come from the blues.
It was a major decision from government which was delivered via an unconventional method. Ordinarily, such a policy shift from government should have come from the lips of the Government Spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu. Being such a scathing decision on the image of government, it was released through the GoldBod CEO to avoid an immediate public backlash.
For us as Ghanaians, this message is sufficient proof that the galamsey war has ended in earnest.
What is National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) doing at this stage when small-scale miners no longer need licences to operate, provided their activities would spare forest reserves and water bodies? Should the soldiers RTU or Return To Unit?
The hypocrisy of government in this so-called anti-galamsey war could not have been better elaborated.
The campaign message to illegal miners that they would be given a good deal should the National Democratic Congress (NDC) win the last polls has come to pass, and they have cause to celebrate.
It is heartbreaking that government, for the sake of political leverage, would take this ecologically destructive stride.
For a group of politicians who demanded a state of emergency when they were campaigning for power to take this move speaks volumes about the level of chicanery in the NDC.
Until Ghanaians vote this political grouping out of power, the level of destruction to our ecology can only be imagined.
The environmental suicide as others have chosen to describe the trajectory upon which the government has embarked on behalf of the citizens it represents is as heartbreaking as it is mindboggling.
Posterity will deal harshly with this government which has decided to gamble with the fortunes and even lives of Ghanaians.
The story continues to be told about the chemical abuse on the environment where illegal mining activities are taking place at an unprecedented scale.
Oops! There is no longer illegal mining or galamsey because, as per Sammy Gyamfi’s definition, they no longer require licences to mine who decide to take that occupation provided they would not do so on forest reserves and water bodies.
With cocoa farms and even neighbourhoods at their disposal, small-scale miners, a better moniker for them, have a larger swathe of land to prospect for gold. Ghana of course would be the loser, and do they care who have taken this most abusive decision yet on the country’s ecology.
No wonder the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church took exception to the claim of the NAIMOS boss when he lied that the war against illegal mining was being won. Whatever criteria to determine the progress is best known to him. Perhaps he has been infected with the propoaganda contagion that is the lot of the NDC, especially Sammy Gyamfi.
When you wake up tomorrow and find a group of men prospecting for gold beyond your house, do not fight them, they are only enjoying the freedom to mine without licence offered by Sammy Gyamfi on behalf of the government.